The Constitution is a greatly inspired document. There are many key reasons as to why. Some key reasons: the statement “We the people,” the first amendment, and checks and balances.
Both Checks and Balances and the statement “We the People” offer equality in the government. One of the principles of the gospel is teaching saints to treat one another with kindness and love, which leads to equality. Equality is essential in our form of government and the constitution mentions that. It wasn’t until later that this nation was made entirely equal with the abolishment of slave ownership. This led to allowing the blacks to have the priesthood which in turn made this church more equal and the nation more equal.
Checks and Balances are necessary in rule of law, and with checks and balances it makes no one in the government above the law. This makes God the ultimate ruler which is an inspired doctrine. Even in the ancient days after the reign of King Mosiah, the judges were set up. The judges had a system of Checks and Balances which made God the Ruler of law. A poor example of the Ruler of law was through King George III when he put himself above the law when making laws against the colonies. God needs to be the high ruler and Checks and Balances makes this possible with the inspiration that is given to those men in the Legislative, Judiciary, and Executive branches. Why do those men get inspiration? The Evidence is found in D&C 101: 76-80 when it talks about how God inspired the men that authored the Constitution. If this was true in that day, it must be true today with the men in government.
The Statement “We the People” other than just showing equality, also shows unity. It’s not We the States, but We the People. It goes on to say of the United States of America. The word United sticks out, and gives evidence to unity. The saints need to be unified so that those simple words “We the People of the United States of America” show that this place, Zion, is unified.
The first amendment is, if not the, most important part of the constitution for our church. It gives us the Freedom of Religion, Speech, and Press. The section about Religion is very important, because without it this church could not exist. We may have even been required to only practice one religion and Zion could not exist in this system of government. The First Amendment is vital and for the reason that it is in the Constitution gives evidence that the Constitution was inspired.
A reference to this country being Zion is shown in 1 Nephi 13:12. It talks about a man coming across many waters to a free land. This man was Christopher Columbus. It gives evidence that this land is Zion and in order for it to be Zion, the Constitution had to have been inspired.
Inspiration for the Constitution is given through many concepts some of which are: Checks and Balances, the statement “We the People”, and the First Amendment. How could this document not be inspired?
I very much enjoyed how much you tied the Constitution back into the Gospel. Throughout the entire essay you did this. I think too often we draw a line between the two that we don't dare cross. You answered the question about what was inspired about the Constitution very well but you probably could have spent more time speaking of how it was inspired. Namely how were the founding fathers inspired?
ReplyDeleteThis essay had interesting tangents that would tie the constitution into a more religious perspective which is something I haven't ever really seen before but I enjoyed it. I think that the "How was the constitution," was neglected as far as being present on your paper.
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